After finishing top of the WKL in 2007-08, Cardiff City have automatically qualified to participate in the first round of the Europa Cup. The Cup’s western division will be held in Luxembourg over the weekend of the 4/5 October. CCKC will battle against league winners from Catalonia (CKV), Portugal (CCO), Russia (STSR), France (Bonson), Scotland (St Andrews) and hosts Luxembourg (KCLRL), but only the top two teams will proceed to the second round held in January.

CCKC have trained at least once a week over the korfball summer break to prepare for the anticipated high level matches they will be facing. Also part of their preparation was a round robbin friendly pre-season mini-tournament versus the London based teams of West London Wildcats, Kingfisher, Cambridge, Croydon and Bec. Unfortunately, CCKC did not win any of these matches (only 25 minutes long each) but a big improvement could be noticed in the way the team played together over the course of the day.

After locating everyone (not as easy as it sounds without mobile reception) we set off! The first climb from Neuadd Reservoir up toÂ the ridge that that leads to Corn Du got everyone going and cleared the Saturday night hangovers.Â Plenty of banter and stories followed with discussions of legendary korfball socials and skiing high on the agenda.

Following lunch on the ridge we reached Corn Du in the cloud.Â The weather didn’t dampen our spirits and cleared by the time we neared Pen y Fan. For some members of the group it was the first time they’d actually walked up Pen y Fan despite thinking they’d completed it before walking up Corn Du!!

We quickly climbed Cribyn and Fan y Big before heading back to our start point.

CCKC at Neuadd Reservoir

Everyone had a great day – thanks to Aidan for organising.

Next Social event is the start of season mystery social on the Saturday 11th October – details at training.

The next event will be in Stadskanaal (Netherlands) on the 7th, 8th and 9th November. Wales will play a warm up match on Friday evening against the hosts, then play a tournament on Saturday followed by Sunday’s international friendlies against Luxembourg and Slovakia.